The Trump administration is launching the American “Tech Force,” the government’s first jobs program meant to “hire the best professionals to modernize the federal government,” according to a statement released by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
As part of this program, government agencies will deliver the first batch of 1,000 early career technology experts who will be recruited from government agencies to work on one- or two-year fellowships. OPM aims to have 30 to 40 partners in large companies.
In addition, the government will also hire a total of 500 project management and data science associates this coming spring, as well as 200 unpaid technical interns under the “Semester of Service” volunteer program.
“US Tech Force Fellows will gain unique skills and experience working on significant, high-impact projects, giving Fellows the opportunity to apply and use technology in ways they cannot in the private sector,” the Office of Personnel Management said in a memo.
Applications are open and accepted continuously. For those who succeed, the average salary offered is $150,000 to $200,00. There is a long list of participating federal agencies, with the initial list including the Departments of Defense, Treasury, State, Labor, Commerce, Energy, Transportation, Homeland Security, and more.
According to CNN, the partners will work on projects such as building drones and weapons integrated with AI, applying AI to intelligence operations, and building a platform that will be used for Trump accounts.
The program is intended to address the skills gap and accelerate the adoption of AI in the federal workforce and is part of Trump’s “AI Action Plan,” which the administration announced in July with the goal of beating China in the global AI race.
“The Tech Force will accelerate the use of AI to make our government more responsive and efficient,” the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy wrote in an X post on Monday.
The early jobs program also comes at a time when young graduates are facing one of the toughest job markets in years, and AI is widely seen as having an impact on that demographic.
As with many other AI initiatives of the Trump era, the private sector is in on this as well. The program seeks to recruit experienced professionals directly from the private sector to mentor their young colleagues, and many technology companies are joining to support the program with technical training. The initial list includes, Nvidia, OpenAI, Adobe, Amazon Web Services, Apple, Coinbase, Google Public Sector, Robinhood, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Palantir, Uber, xAI and more, the list is set to increase.
“Sharing elite technical talent is another way Amazon is helping to advance America’s AI leadership,” AWS vice president of global public affairs Dave Levy said in the announcement.
Sharing talent between the private and public sectors to boost AI is an unusual move but not Trump 2.0. Many of the top officials in the Trump administration have come directly from the private sector, including his “AI & Crypto Czar” David Sacks, a venture capitalist who was in hot water last month for what many see as a conflict of interest stemming from his large tech investments. Saka will be one of the government officials leading the Tech Force program.
The President also tapped Elon Musk to lead the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency “agency.” Then in June, four Silicon Valley executives — Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil, and Think Machines Lab consultant Bob McGrew — joined the Army Reserve as directly commissioned officers.
